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A walk around Lismore will bring you upon the building of the Poor Law Workhouse, where for many years housed the hundreds of people who began enraptured by the famine.
Poor Law Workhouse
The Poor Law Workhouse in Lismore was established for the relief of the distressed in the 1800’s and had accommodation for five hundred paupers. A few years after opening it was overwhelmed by the catastrophe of the Great Famine with at one time over 700 people staying there most of whom were starving and disease ridden.
Lismore was one of four workhouses opened in County Waterford along with Waterford City, Dungarvan and Kilmacthomas and an auxiliary workhouse had to be opened in Tallow. As the 19th century wore on one of the first acts of the Free State Government was to abolish the Poor Law Workhouse though the building still stands.
